Unscramble the Blue Letters

And sometimes, of course, our worst esarf do come true. That's one of the things that is so extraordinary about earf. Once in a while, our fears can predict the fuertu. But we can't possibly prepare for all of the fears that our imaginations ccntoco. So how can we tell the difference between the fears worth listening to and all the others? I think the end of the story of the hwelhipsa Essex offers an ituignlnmlai, if tragic, example. After much deliberation, the men finally made a decision. Terrified of cannibals, they decided to forgo the closest islands and instead mdaeekbr on the geolnr and much more difficult route to South America. After more than two mosnht at sea, the men ran out of food as they knew they might, and they were still quite far from land. When the last of the survivors were finally picked up by two passing sihps, less than half of the men were left alive, and some of them had resorted to their own ofmr of cannibalism. Herman Melville, who used this story as research for "Moby Dick," wrote years later, and from dry land, quote, "All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex might in all human probability have been avoided had they, immediately after leaving the wreck, steered straight for Tahiti. But," as Melville put it, "they dreaded cannibals." So the question is, why did these men dread cannibals so much more than the extreme likelihood of starvation? Why were they swayed by one story so much more than the other? Looked at from this angle, theirs becomes a story about ngeidra. The novelist virdilma Nabokov said that the best reader has a combination of two very different temperaments, the artistic and the iciincefst. A ogod reader has an artist's passion, a willingness to get caught up in the story, but just as importantly, the readers also needs the coolness of judgment of a scientist, which acts to temper and complicate the reader's intuitive reactions to the story. As we've seen, the men of the seexs had no trouble with the artistic part. They demedra up a variety of horrifying scenarios. The problem was that they listened to the wrong story. Of all the narratives their fears wrote, they responded only to the most lurid, the most vivid, the one that was easiest for their imaginations to picture: cannibals. But perhaps if they'd been able to ared their fears more like a scientist, with more oolsnces of judgment, they would have lseidnet instead to the less violent but the more likely tale, the story of starvation, and headed for tihait, just as Melville's sad yotrnmcaemtsesuggs.

Open Cloze

And sometimes, of course, our worst _____ do come true. That's one of the things that is so extraordinary about ____. Once in a while, our fears can predict the ______. But we can't possibly prepare for all of the fears that our imaginations _______. So how can we tell the difference between the fears worth listening to and all the others? I think the end of the story of the _________ Essex offers an ____________, if tragic, example. After much deliberation, the men finally made a decision. Terrified of cannibals, they decided to forgo the closest islands and instead ________ on the ______ and much more difficult route to South America. After more than two ______ at sea, the men ran out of food as they knew they might, and they were still quite far from land. When the last of the survivors were finally picked up by two passing _____, less than half of the men were left alive, and some of them had resorted to their own ____ of cannibalism. Herman Melville, who used this story as research for "Moby Dick," wrote years later, and from dry land, quote, "All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex might in all human probability have been avoided had they, immediately after leaving the wreck, steered straight for Tahiti. But," as Melville put it, "they dreaded cannibals." So the question is, why did these men dread cannibals so much more than the extreme likelihood of starvation? Why were they swayed by one story so much more than the other? Looked at from this angle, theirs becomes a story about _______. The novelist ________ Nabokov said that the best reader has a combination of two very different temperaments, the artistic and the __________. A ____ reader has an artist's passion, a willingness to get caught up in the story, but just as importantly, the readers also needs the coolness of judgment of a scientist, which acts to temper and complicate the reader's intuitive reactions to the story. As we've seen, the men of the _____ had no trouble with the artistic part. They _______ up a variety of horrifying scenarios. The problem was that they listened to the wrong story. Of all the narratives their fears wrote, they responded only to the most lurid, the most vivid, the one that was easiest for their imaginations to picture: cannibals. But perhaps if they'd been able to ____ their fears more like a scientist, with more ________ of judgment, they would have ________ instead to the less violent but the more likely tale, the story of starvation, and headed for ______, just as Melville's sad __________________.

Solution

dreamed

coolness

essex

tahiti

fear

concoct

fears

ships

commentary

reading

good

scientific

listened

read

illuminating

whaleship

longer

vladimir

embarked

months

suggests

future

form

Original Text

And sometimes, of course, our worst fears do come true. That's one of the things that is so extraordinary about fear. Once in a while, our fears can predict the future. But we can't possibly prepare for all of the fears that our imaginations concoct. So how can we tell the difference between the fears worth listening to and all the others? I think the end of the story of the whaleship Essex offers an illuminating, if tragic, example. After much deliberation, the men finally made a decision. Terrified of cannibals, they decided to forgo the closest islands and instead embarked on the longer and much more difficult route to South America. After more than two months at sea, the men ran out of food as they knew they might, and they were still quite far from land. When the last of the survivors were finally picked up by two passing ships, less than half of the men were left alive, and some of them had resorted to their own form of cannibalism. Herman Melville, who used this story as research for "Moby Dick," wrote years later, and from dry land, quote, "All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex might in all human probability have been avoided had they, immediately after leaving the wreck, steered straight for Tahiti. But," as Melville put it, "they dreaded cannibals." So the question is, why did these men dread cannibals so much more than the extreme likelihood of starvation? Why were they swayed by one story so much more than the other? Looked at from this angle, theirs becomes a story about reading. The novelist Vladimir Nabokov said that the best reader has a combination of two very different temperaments, the artistic and the scientific. A good reader has an artist's passion, a willingness to get caught up in the story, but just as importantly, the readers also needs the coolness of judgment of a scientist, which acts to temper and complicate the reader's intuitive reactions to the story. As we've seen, the men of the Essex had no trouble with the artistic part. They dreamed up a variety of horrifying scenarios. The problem was that they listened to the wrong story. Of all the narratives their fears wrote, they responded only to the most lurid, the most vivid, the one that was easiest for their imaginations to picture: cannibals. But perhaps if they'd been able to read their fears more like a scientist, with more coolness of judgment, they would have listened instead to the less violent but the more likely tale, the story of starvation, and headed for Tahiti, just as Melville's sad commentary suggests.